StormhelmCurse

Curse of the Crimson Throne AP, in 4E set in the city Stormhelm in Eskorn in Returned Abeir

Oldtown

As its name implies, Oldtown is old. It covers all of Endrin
Isle, which rises from sea level along the southern shore on
the Narrows of Saint Alika to a 200-foot-high escarpment
on the seaward north side. At the foot of Garrison Hill, as
this steep incline is called, sits the beehive-like hovel of
Bridgefront. Old Dock stands on the relatively flat eastern
protrusion of the island. Atop Garrison Hill stands the
stone wall of Fort Korvosa, commissioned by Field Marshal Korvosa on his first attempts to rebuild the city after defeating Eskornamundyr. The imposing
black-marble Palace Arkona dominates Old Korvosa, while
the remains of the original wooden palisade slowly rot near
the gate into the ward.
Bridgefront: When the people of Bridgefront ran out of
room to erect more buildings, they started adding makeshift
floors to extant structures. Over time, these makeshift floors
gained their own rooftop lean-tos. Spaces between buildings
became fair game as well, with ladders and long poles crossing
gaps over increasingly narrow roads. Bridgefront occupies a
narrow spit of land at the base of Garrison Hill, reaching only
three blocks inland from the strait. In those three blocks,
though, live more than a tenth of the city’s population,
including almost eight-tenths of its poor and destitute.
Fort Korvosa: Less a ward than a moldering citadel, the
second incarnation of Fort Korvosa stands atop Garrison
Hill and overlooks both Old Korvosa and Conqueror’s
Bay. The high granite walls around the fort have received
no maintenance since their completion, and have begun
to crumble as a result. Thanks to an arrangement made
between House Arkona and the city, Palace Arkona, along
with its many side buildings, provides the home to the ward’s
only permanent residents (the noble family and its servants).
On the opposite side of the ward stands the whitewashed
buildings of the Endrin Military Academy.
Garrison Hill: Crammed in the narrow confine between
the towering walls of Fort Korvosa
and the towering humanity of Bridgefront, Garrison
Hill rises up on the eastern slope of its eponymous hill.
The streets here widen out from the cramped alleys of
Bridgefront, although it is more accurate to say they retain
their original widths and have not been encroached upon
by the spreading mass of shanties. Residents of Garrison
Hill struggle against the oozing spread of destitution in
the nearby wards.
Old Dock: If not for the festering poverty and
unwholesome growth that is Bridgefront, Old Dock would
be considered the city’s most run-down and least-desirable
ward. In many ways, though, it actually does bear those
dubious distinctions. Whereas the people of Bridgefront
mostly lead honest if poverty-stricken lives, those of Old
Dock rarely burden themselves with such trifles as legality,
morality, or compassion. Indeed, rough-and-tumble Old
Dock accounts for more than half the city’s violent crimes,
despite frequent, heavy patrols by the Korvosan Guard.